Well, that's something of a joke among his teammates for the past six months because on the field, when geared up from head to toe, Collie is blazing quick.

He runs precision routes with little or no wasted motion.

He explodes off the line and can get deep and open in defensive secondaries.

He's as good a hawk as any receiver BYU has ever had with the ball in the air.

And he's closing in on passing many of the legendary names in the school's record book.

But there was a day this past June, when Collie wore nothing but shorts, a flimsy shirt and shoes and socks, that he ran the 40-yard dash in something more than 4.6 seconds — a mark considered a bit slow or average.

It was a 40 time that is unacceptable to Collie. He knows he's faster than the clock showed. And true, hand-held 40 times can vary as much as half a second and are not considered all that accurate.

Still, it bugs Collie. "I'm a low-4.5 guy."

Really?

"We always kind of make fun of him because he didn't run the 40 time he wanted to run," said BYU quarterback Max Hall.

"He feels like he's a 4.4 guy; he's Austin. But he runs just as fast as a 4.4 guy with pads on when on the field, and that's what makes him special. He's tough, he's big, he's strong, and then when he gets his pads on, he doesn't change or slow down. If anything, he might get faster because he's in game mode."

And that's called football speed, something Collie definitely possesses.

"I'm not a 4.6 guy," said Collie. "It was just one day. It all depends. I can run in the low 4.5s. I know I didn't test that. At the time, I was weighing 209 to 210, and now I'm 197. That's a huge difference."

Regardless of what the clock says, few will argue Collie stands out on the football field when the ball is in the air. It is so in practice, and it's been that way since he earned MWC freshman of the year honors in 2004 before serving an LDS mission to Argentina.

Collie currently ranks No. 7 in the NCAA in receiving yards per game (103 ypg), just ahead of teammate Dennis Pitta (102 ypg) at No. 11.

He is five catches from tying Todd Christensen (152 catches) at No. 8 on BYU's all-time receiving list.

That BYU list is full of running backs and tight ends. Only three wide receivers rank higher than Collie — Eric Drage, Phil Odle and Margin Hooks — and the junior, barring injury, will surpass them all by the end of his career.

On the field, Collie may be faster than any of those on that list.

"It's game speed. I think it's a whole lot different on a clock than it is in a game. One day it said I'm a 4.6," Collie said. "That is what the clock said that day. I know I'm faster than that.

"But yeah, a lot has to do with game speed, you're not worrying about your start; you're just worrying about getting to the ball and playing natural. That's the difference between clock and game speed."

Perhaps the biggest example of game speed versus clock speed was former NFL star wide receiver Jerry Rice, who at 6-foot-2 and 200 pounds was a similar size to Collie. Reportedly, Rice ran a 4.71 time in the 40 early in his NFL career, which is one reason he was overlooked in the draft. Steve Young ran the 40 faster than Rice, but, on the field with pads on, Rice took it to a different level.

Someone once said speed is about heart, and there are two kinds of heart: the heart that beats and the heart that beats other people.

Collie has two kinds of heart.

"You saw that in that third play of the Utah State game," Hall said of Collie. "When he got to that guy who kind of got close to him and he stiff-armed him down and, phew, he was gone. That shows how strong he is. He's a guy we can throw a deep ball to, a guy we can throw a long post to, and he'll go get it."

Hall concluded, "It's just different when you have pads on. You can be a track guy and be really fast, but when you put pads on, guys run past you. It's just a different kind of speed. Whatever it is, Austin has it."

Collie said he's taken it to heart to run precise routes — that by doing so, it enables him to get an advantage on the field.

"Definitely, that is something I pay attention to. It's something coach Higgins harps on a lot is taking different angles on the defensive backs, pushing at them with different leverage, and that's how we get open by running good routes," Collie said.

"That is why Jerry Rice was so good in the NFL. He worked angles, got leverage and got edges on people, and that made all the difference in the world for him. It's all it really takes."

Collie remains BYU's best kick-return man, even if that has not been his duty this season. A year ago, Collie had 237 yards in kickoff returns against Tulsa, and his 366 all-purpose yards against the Golden Hurricane broke a 35-year-old BYU record previously held by Pete Van Valkenburg. It was also an MWC all-purpose yards record.

A year ago, Collie had 109 and 126 receiving yards against TCU and Utah — two of the league's top secondary talents.

His seven TD catches led the league a year ago, and he currently has seven this season with seven, and possibly eight more games to play. He has a three-game 100-yard receiving streak.

Still, that day he was timed last summer sticks in his craw.

"I think I'm a lot faster than the clock showed that one day," Collie said. "You can look at guys running on the track, see them in the Olympics, and they get beat. It just wasn't their day. It just wasn't there. Same thing that happened to me, plus I was 10 pounds heavier."

Indeed, back in high school, when Collie was timed at a combine hosted by Rivals.com, he weighed 190 pounds and was clocked on the record at 4.49 seconds for 40 yards.

Game speed versus clock speed. Does it matter?

Tight end Dennis Pitta, who also is having a sensational junior year, believes there is a difference.

"I do think that it's a little different once you put pads on. Some guys who can flat out run when you have shorts on and they're flying down the field, but it's a whole new game when you put pads on," said Pitta.

"And some buys know how to handle it better. Some guys are able to control it better. Austin is one of those guys who might not have one of the most impressive times off the field, but once he straps it on, he's one of the fastest guys on the field. It's evident when he plays."